GC 2009: Monster Hunter Tri Interview

With over 3.5 million units of the latest PSP version shifted alone, the Monster Hunter franchise is a Japanese phenomenon. With the game's arrival in the West at the beginning of the year - renamed Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - Capcom has hoped to replicate its success over here too. Mirroring the social meeting spots commonplace back in the game's homeland, Capcom has established a Monster Hunter Gathering Hall in London for series fans to meet up and play together. It's still early days for the franchise over here but, as producer Ryozo Tsujimoto tells us, it's a promising start - and hopes are high for the forthcoming Wii game Monster Hunter Tri.

IGN UK: Capcom has set up a Gathering Hall in London for Monster Hunter players to come together and play over ad-hoc, just like the venues that exist all over Japan. Have you been there? How does it compare?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Of course, I was there for the opening. I was pleasantly surprised – I actually expected about ten people, but we had 150-200 show up!

Setting up the London Gathering Hall was a bit of a gamble for us, we didn't know how it would go, but it was accepted and we've found out that there are core fans who like to get together with ad-hoc and play. We now know that European people do like playing with their friends over ad-hoc, and it's up to us to support those communities from now on.

IGN UK: What steps are you taking to make Monster Hunter Tri more accessible than the PSP games?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: First of all, there's the control system: we thought about how to include the casual gamers on Wii as well. As a result, we gave players the choice of a few different control options. If you've been playing Monster Hunter on PSP and you're using the classic controller, you'll be using pretty much the same control system; we've also got nunchuck and wiimote. It will be more intuitive and probably easier for the people who've never played a Monster Hunter game before to get into the world with Tri.

Tri is also more user-friendly because the single-player is a story mode [whereas the PSP games were mission-based]. Following a story makes the game easier for users to follow and get into.

We don't force the player to memorise huge amounts of information any more. In this particular title we don't have a training school. That was abolished. You just follow the story, and it's not like you're thinking "Oh, God, this must be a tutorial", you're just unfolding that story, and after you finish it you've learned how to do everything – pick up items, fight against monsters and so on in a more natural way.

IGN: Are you happy with Tri's reception in Japan so far?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: The reaction is very good. Very encouraging. Obviously we worried a little bit about the PSP users switching onto Wii, but they found the game very refreshing and totally new, and we're picking up some casual gamers as well, which is great.

IGN: What more were you able to do with Monster Hunter on the Wii versus the PSP?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Probably the largest difference between those two consoles is the tempo of the gameplay. For a portable console we couldn't create a story mode – it had to be something you could pick up easily and put down just as easily. However, for a home console such as Wii, we were able to implement a story to ease people into the world.

IGN: What about extra weapons and items?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Well, the actual number of weapons, items and armour is actually less in Tri than in Freedom Unite's, because we have been building this game in a different direction from scratch. We've implemented a living, breathing, rich ecosystem in the game. On the PSP version it used to be hunter vs monster, or hunters vs monster, but in Tri the monsters also have their own independent existence in this rich ecological environment.

For instance, small monsters move in packs and, if a large monster comes into their territory, they'll fight back – just as they would if a player comes into their territory. There's a whole ecology incorporated into this game.

For herbivores, when the leader of the herd comes around they all want to show off. They get all excited and start jumping about. But when the leader of the herd disappears to a different area, they calm down.

You can also use items differently – for instance, there's a torch which you can light inside caves or at night-time. But some smaller monsters are afraid of the flame, so if you're carrying the torch around you won't get attacked by them. Felynes also get excited by the torch, so they might start dancing around.

This gives you different options for co-op play. If you were mining on the PSP version, you'd sometimes get attacked by the smaller monsters. Now though, another hunter can carry a torch right next to you so that you don't get attacked by irritating smaller monsters.

This all makes Monster Hunter a more intelligent game. It makes players think more. It used to be the case that you had to watch how a particular monster behaves, watch their movement and attack patterns, but this time around you have to think more about group dynamics, how they behave and interact with the environment and each other.

IGN: In Japan, Tri works on a subscription-based online play system. Is that the plan for Europe and America as well?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: That's not been decided yet. We're analysing the infrastructure and technology that will be required for the Western market at the moment. Having said that, we are collecting all the feedback from the Western market; for instance voice chat is more important, and in a game if you implement one feature you often have to cut out another feature. So it's still in the concept stage.

IGN: Were the PS3 and Xbox 360 ever considered for Monster Hunter Tri?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Monster Hunter 3 originally started out as a PS3 game, but we switched to Wii because of the unique control system. We wanted to make something intuitive, so that if you hadn't played the PSP version or were a more casual gamer, you can still can get into it. So we created this particular game on Wii. But we never say never – it's just that we haven't had the opportunity to bring Monster Hunter to PS3 or Xbox 360 yet.

IGN: Given that Monster Hunter Freedom Unite's sales have been a little disappointing so far outside of Japan, what's the plan for pulling in the Western audience with Tri?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: Firstly, we don't consider Monster Hunter Freedom Unite a flop. We have established a fan base. If you go back, in Japan it took a long time to hit that three and a half million mark. We did it through word of mouth and it reached the saturation point - and after that it became a phenomenon. It's peer-pressure now – if you don't play Monster Hunter 2nd G in Japan, you're an outsider.

Up until that point we have to work in baby steps. Freedom Unite was a building foundation. And Tri is a second step. Hopefully we can grow the Monster Hunter community in the West even bigger.

IGN: Do you really ever see it being played on trains and buses in Europe like it is on Japan?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: For one thing, people don't spend as much time on trains in the West – naturally it would be great if we could see people getting together and playing on the train, but the lifestyle is different in all of these countries. But it doesn't matter where you get together, as long as you do get together and play via ad-hoc.

IGN: How much do you actually play Monster Hunter yourself?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: The Monster Hunter franchise is probably a little different from other franchises – all the R&D developers tend to start playing as soon as it's released and start picking out the bits that they're not too happy about. Monster Hunter Tri came out 20 days ago in Japan, and I've played it with my colleagues for about 40 hours since then.

The director [Kaname Fujioka] and I get on very well – when we leave the office, we organise a time to play Monster Hunter online later.

IGN: After all those hours, are you getting a bit bored of Monster Hunter?

Ryozo Tsujimoto: (laughs) Of course, I'd like to make other things, move on to a totally different game. However, we don't think that we've finished Monster Hunter quite yet. We still get a lot of feedback from users, so I'll carry on working on it. But you never know – I might just switch onto something else!

However, my philosophy for creating games is that I'm not going to just give up on a mediocre level, mediocre ideas. I want a challenge, whatever I do. So that could be Monster Hunter, it could be something totally different.